Transport à la Mode

June 2013

1 post

“Suddenly streetcars—those clanging, clattering, spark-emitting icons of public transit’s past—are among the hottest and most coveted components of public transit’s future….[W]hat big city in America wouldn’t want to inject just a little of San Francisco’s charm or Portland’s uber-hipness into an urban core that generally tends to close for business at 5 p.m.?” —

A Desire Named Streetcar

, by Jeff Turrentine

Jun 5, 2013

#streetcars #san francisco #portland #transport #urbanism

May 2013

1 post

29 of the world’s largest bike-sharing programs in one map → qz.com

New York’s new system is compact and dense. Washington DC’s is expansive and sparse. Seoul’s is bifurcated. Paris’s is comprehensive. The geographic footprint of a city’s bike-sharing system can reveal both the municipality’s level of commitment to transportation alternatives as well as the topography of the surrounding area. 

May 30, 20132 notes

#Bike Sharing #maps #cartography

April 2013

1 post

Subways of North America → xkcd.com

Note the “covertly-repurposed Amtrak line” near Philly, and the “graveyard for passengers killed by closing doors” near Miami.

Apr 8, 2013

#dreamy

February 2013

1 post

Feb 5, 2013101 notes

#1920s

April 2012

2 posts

Apr 11, 20121 note

Wheels of Change: How The Bicycle Empowered Women → brainpickings.org

Can’t wait to read this new book by Sue Macy about the fascinating, intertwined history of women, feminism, and bicycles in the early days of velocipedes in America.

Maria Popova has put together an enticing preview over at Brain Pickings, complete with historical photos and illustrations of the outfits worn by women cyclists (absurdly burdensome, to the eye of a jeans-wearing present-day cyclist) and the impressions they made.

You can check for Wheels of Change in the children’s section of your local library, or find it online.

Apr 6, 2012

March 2012

1 post

Animals on the Underground → animalsontheunderground.com

In 1988, commuter Paul Middlewick was staring at a map of the London Underground when he spotted a beady-eyed elephant outlined by the tube lines and a couple stations. The Animals on the Underground project now includes more than 35 critters, including an adorable wombat and a smiling bottlenose whale.

Mar 7, 20121 note

#London #UK #Underground #Art #Transit Maps #Maps

February 2012

2 posts

Feb 15, 201254 notes

#bus stop #transportation #china

Feb 15, 2012359 notes

#New Orleans #FEMA #trailers #Louisiana

January 2012

11 posts

Jan 17, 201272 notes

#London #UK #1950s #vintage #bus #urban mobility

Jan 12, 201248 notes

#cartography #Google Streetview #Google #Apps #Streetview Stereographic #Map apps

Jan 12, 20127 notes

#Safety #Fatal Accidents #Car Crashes #2010s #data visualization #NHTSA #U.S.

“When rumor first came across the water, a few years ago, of that wonderful and fascinating little two-wheeled machine, upon which one could so gracefully annihilate time and space, the author of this little book was seized with his first attack of Velocipede Fever.” —

Opening lines of “The Velocipede: Its History, Varieties, and Practice,” by J. T. Goddard. The book was published in 1869.

Fun fact from the same book: “Among those who distinguished themselves on the velocipede in England was Michael Faraday the chemist, who frequently drove his machine through the suburbs of London.”

Jan 11, 20124 notes

#Veolocipede #bicycles #1860s #books #history #J. T. Goddard #Michael Faraday #London #France #UK #Paris

Jan 11, 20128 notes

#1800s #vintage bikes #cartoons #satire #Kate Beaton #women

Jan 11, 201252 notes

#Bicycles #Circus #Extreme Sports #Entertainment #1886 #Cincinnati #Ohio

“The streets beneath our feet are getting smart. Pavements are melting into the roads and traffic lights are disappearing. Inspired by the work of scientists and engineers in Holland and Japan, this is a revolution in urban design. Part of it is a movement known as ‘Shared Space’, which promises to dramatically change the way cities look and how we experience them. In Thinking Streets, Angela Saini asks if all these ideas really fulfil the promise of making us all safer, happier and more efficient?” —Thinking Streets (BBC Radio 4)

Jan 10, 20127 notes

#BBC #Shared Space #Public Space #UK #Streets #Traffic #Pedestrians #Walkable City #London

Jan 9, 201240 notes

#Parklet #San Francisco #California #Long Beach #Los Angeles #Philadelphia #Public Space #urban planning #Cities #Livable Streets

Play

Jan 9, 20123 notes

#Bicycle Art #Bicycles #Animation #Art #Etsy #Katy Beveridge

Play

Jan 6, 201215 notes

#San Francisco #California #1950s #streetcars #cable cars #Playland

“[B]efore it could rise into the sky, Manhattan had to create the streets, avenues and blocks that support the skyscrapers. The grid was big government in action, a commercially minded boon to private development and, almost despite itself, a creative template.” —

From a New York Times writeup of the Museum of the City of New York exhibit, “The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811-2011.”

The exhibit, running through April 15, has been designed as a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the planning document that established Manhattan’s street grid and continues to influence public life.

Jan 3, 201211 notes

#New York City #urban planning #streets #1810s #Exhibits